Has alcoholism increased?

Question

Has alcoholism increased since prohibition days? I've seen the sales outlets for alcohol availability rise since the days of the state liquor stores. I checked the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and a news article from NBC without any specific results. Moved to Health SE

This is probably a better fit for [Health SE](https://health.stackexchange.com/) than here. — Xander, Nov 09 '17 at 17:03
Should I move it to Health SE and delete it here or leave it here too. — Thomas Schulte, Nov 10 '17 at 19:09
Cross posting is generally discouraged, so either delete it here, or at least edit it to let folks know you've created a copy over there with a link to the new post if they're interested. — Xander, Nov 10 '17 at 23:54
The new question location is [here](https://health.stackexchange.com/q/14302). — Xander, Feb 21 '18 at 14:33

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 17 '17 at 14:59

According to the OECD (The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), alcohol consumption in its member countries (which includes the US) has been decreasing since [at least] 2000. Litres of pure alcohol consumed (a metric for standardizing alcohol consumption across drinks of varying alcohol content) has fallen from 9.5 litres per capita in 2000 to 9 litres in 2015 (roughly 5% decline).

The definition of alcoholism can vary since it typically includes the frequency of consumption within its own definition. The paper I cited includes stats on binge drinking (at least once a month) by gender, but does not compare data to prior years. There's been a ton of research on this topic, so a bit of googling should quickly turn up something useful. CAMH has useful publications and so does the WHO.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 17 '17 at 17:19

But, if you read this, it sounds like Alcohol consumption (along with all it's problems including addiction) has increased significantly in the USA. This study is out just last summer (2017)

"In the '90s, however, alcohol consumption increased — the percentage of people who drank at all increased by nearly half, while high-risk and disordered drinking increased by about 20 percent and 12 percent, respectively."

If you go all the way back to Prohibition, then it has clearly increased

Has alcoholism increased?

2 Answers2